Merchants offer coupons or rebates as incentives for purchasing particular products. Traditionally, coupons are distributed in a paper format. A user redeems the coupon by taking the physical coupon to a merchant and purchasing a product that satisfies the terms of the coupon. Other forms of traditional coupons include rebates for purchasing particular products, wherein after purchasing a product that satisfies the terms of the rebate offer, the user fills out and returns required forms to request the rebate.
More recently, merchants have offered electronic offers. Such offers may be linked to merchant loyalty cards, wherein a user enrolls in a merchant's loyalty program and receives a loyalty card. A user then associates certain discounts to the loyalty card and redeems these discounts by presenting the loyalty card (or some form of identifying information, such as a telephone number) and the method of payment to the merchant when purchasing the discounted products.
With the advent of smart phone technology, merchants are now able to present users with electronic offers that are accessed and saved using an offer application resident on a wireless communication device. Users can search for offers using various offer applications and present a selected offer to a merchant for redemption without requiring paper coupons, loyalty cards, or rebate forms.